Many Modernisms: Launch of Second Century Modernism in London

STIR curated an evening titled Many Modernisms at Space House in Holborn, London, to launch John Jennifer Marx's book Second Century Modernism. The event featured presentations and a panel discussion with poet and artist Pelé Cox, designer Simone Brewster, architect Viviana Muscettola (director at Zaha Hadid Architects), and artist-designer Adam Nathaniel Furman, moderated by STIR's Anmol Ahuja. The book critiques modernism's first century and proposes an architecture of 'emotional abundance' as an alternative to the scarcity induced by minimalism and efficiency. Speakers stressed the need for multiple makers and voices in shaping the built environment, with Cox linking architecture and poetry, Brewster calling for 'interrupting' architecture through inhabitation, Muscettola discussing ZHA's parametric projects, and Furman advocating for chromatic plenitude. The evening de-centred singular modernist narratives, emphasizing diverse perspectives for the second century of modernism.